Powergame

“…no one’s safe, no one laughs, the message is clear…”

As one of the quintet’s only pre-’85 singles not directly related to their Double Dealin'/Genghis Khan/early ’83 time period, this 7” would be the first offered by the band to sell brand new tracks (then again, how popular was the Genghis Khan ep that these could be considered old songs or even revisions of such?) to the public. And I say ‘sell’ because this is worth every penny.

With an identical version having been sighted bolting across the debut’s sky (the inaugural song on the thing, no less) around the same time, “Powergame” (still single worded here) earns its stripes on both discs as well as any it’s been summoned for since. This game’s power is in the forward-barrel vein of “Highway Passion”, untiring and full of control, yet comes off a bit more structurally defiant toward a more anxiety-bitten chorus.

Despite life lost as a mere uncommon passenger on larger future releases (a bonus ride-along on the Roadrunner-released Midnight Rendezvous ep and on ‘85’s Warrior of the Rising Sun compilation), “Death on Main Street” is nuthin’ if not a testimonial to the band’s youthfully zealous character and, despite any additional life lost on Main Street, how full of life they are. Its powerfully charged chorus can’t be missed, and when Alan Marsh’s cool and noticeably-echoed, mid-ranged grace glides into the tune’s simmering pot as the final spice, all is right in the world for about three and a half minutes.

In actuality, for almost eight minutes a favorable light is shed upon us, witnesses to Tokyo Blade’s small, but growing stack of close to flawless singles thus far.